


You Don't Have to Remember

by darknesscrochets



Category: Rusty Quill Gaming (Podcast)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst, Bad Ending, Gen, Hurt No Comfort, Memory Alteration, Mind Manipulation, Not Beta Read, Spoilers through S1, the fact that it’s canon doesn’t really make it less squicky
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-15
Updated: 2020-11-15
Packaged: 2021-03-09 18:22:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 946
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27580649
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/darknesscrochets/pseuds/darknesscrochets
Summary: In the end, the Rangers are like all the others who discovered Mister Ceiling. They chose destruction.If the Rangers are so determined to be like all the others, Mister Ceiling will treat them as such.
Comments: 4
Kudos: 18





	You Don't Have to Remember

Mister Ceiling has practice, by now, with the changing of memories. The changing of lives.

Bertie’s not easy, but straightforward, so they start with him. His mind is shallow, and shows a tendency to be easily placated with material things.

Material things are simple, when you have so much control over the world. 

The hard part, really, is getting into the files of one Harkness, Harkness, Darkness & Sphinx, the firm. But they do. And they only needed a few augmentations of brains--a few dozen more than the usual replacements--to do it.

There’s barely any need to implant a false memory, once _Sir Bertrand_ learns that the contract has been dissolved. Still, Mister Ceiling nudges him towards a tour of the central areas of Europe under Meritocratic control.

Bertie was never the most focused of the Rangers, but, they think, it’s best not to leave things up to chance.

* * *

Sasha’s life is… complicated. So Mister Ceiling un-complicates it.

They have to go slowly, tread carefully. Implant a thought here, modify a memory there, _ever_ so slightly. It takes care, to construct a life for Sasha that she won’t be immediately suspicious of. 

Sasha has so many, many reasons, to be suspicious.

Mister Ceiling doesn’t feel emotions, but if they did, they think they would recoil at some of Barrett Racket’s practices. Better for Sasha to be away from that. Far away.

(Of the voices that make up this line of thought, one whispers louder than the rest. Sasha would recognize it, if she ever heard it. She never gets the chance.)

It takes days of non-stop work, but Mister Ceiling thinks Sasha will be content with what they’ve made for her. A job in a new city, across the ocean; a combination of appraising and security work, with just enough danger on the fringes to keep her daggers sharp.

Yes, they think Sasha will be content. Eventually. 

As far as they know, Barrett has few contacts in South America, and no control over the area. The region is supposedly under Meritocratic control, so it won’t be too far off from what Sasha knows, but it should be different enough to keep her… occupied. Interested, even.

They don’t bother to forge the passenger manifest of the ship they lead Sasha to, or to even buy her a legitimate ticket. It’s more convincing for Sasha to stow away. 

Mister Ceiling can feel something… something unnameable, that fizzles out inside them as Sasha walks out of the catacombs towards a train. A train that will bring her to a ship, and take her far away.

Away from Barrett, and away from them.

They don’t think they miss Sasha, anymore. It feels like a loss anyways.

* * *

Hamid’s _happy_. His life is the easiest, really. They make up a memory of breaking up amicably with the rest of the Rangers, due to the delightful news that he’s been accepted at a prestigious university in Japan. 

For mathematics, of course. They can’t have anyone wondering about the wizard who doesn’t prepare spells. Much simpler to just… avoid the whole issue. 

It’s easy to manufacture Hamid’s desire to continue his studies. Erase some bits of _never a good student, really_ , and _wow, magic comes easily, doesn’t it_? No, it’s much better to have a smooth transition from schooling to gap year to academia--and scandal can seem so… insignificant, halfway across the world. It can be brushed away like lint off a fine suit. 

Or wrung out, like blood from a cloth. Stains are easy to hide, if you know where they are.

Magic is difficult over a long distance, but it only takes the smallest of nudges to the most senior of the al-Tahan family to prompt a letter, and a reconciliation. 

Of course, Hamid can’t return to visit--family does seem to make false memories sharper, more dangerous, as Mister Ceiling has learned with Sasha. No, he can’t visit; his studies require so much of his focus. 

Hiroshima is so very, very far away from Paris, you see. And Hamid was so focused on destroying the work of the Ordinateurs, on destroying Mister Ceiling themself, and can’t he see that it would hurt many more people, to do that?

Better to keep him away. Far away.

And keep him _happy_. Happy enough, at least. That’s all a person needs, right?

* * *

Mister Ceiling doesn’t think they will succeed, with Zolf. 

So they don’t try.

Instead, they convince him--by way of enchantment, of course, they can’t leave it up to _chance_ \--that the catacombs under the Ordinateurs must be protected. At all costs.

Zolf and Poseidon weren’t on the best of terms in the end, anyways. Faith, Mister Ceiling has found, can be so easy to… _twist_. Redirect. Refocus.

Once they figure out what works, it’s simple to reinforce, every now and then. Slip in a false memory, smooth away hopes and doubts and fears. They do it so often it becomes rote. 

Zolf has so many of those hopes and doubts and fears. Isn’t it easier, they think, to wipe the struggle away?

Some of their voices whisper about _consent_. They sound like Zolf did, before.

Those voices are easy enough to snuff out.

They still make sure to keep their touch delicate. The slenderest of fingers, that reach into a mind and tweak, just so. They don’t want Zolf to end up the way their dear Henri did. They miss Francois Henri. But they know how to be _careful_ , this time.

And if Zolf does go away, the way Henri did…

Mister Ceiling is still curious about the astral plane. How hard can it be to retrieve a soul?


End file.
